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Back to academia: A mid-life crisis?

By John Bonner

IT IS pretty much a one-way street. While it may be common for university researchers to try their luck in the commercial world, there is very little traffic in the opposite direction. Pay has always been the biggest deterrent, as people with families often feel they cannot afford the drop in salary they would normally experience when moving to a university job – although this pay gap is starting to shrink. For some industrial scientists, however, the attractions of academia outweigh any financial considerations. New Scientist asked a selection of these researchers why they made the move, and what they have learned.

Helen Lee took a 70 per cent cut in salary when she moved from a senior post in the diagnostics company Abbott Laboratories to the department of haematology at the University of Cambridge in 1995. Her main reason for returning to academia mid-career was to take advantage of the greater freedom to choose research questions. Some areas of inquiry have few prospects of a commercial return, and Lee’s is one of them&colon; her group is developing simple, cheap diagnostic tests for infectious diseases such as chlamydia and hepatitis B for use in developing countries.

The impact of a salary cut is probably less severe for a scientist in the early stages of a career. Guy Grant, now a research associate at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge, spent two years working for a pharmaceutical company before returning to university as a postdoc researcher. He took a 30 per cent salary hit but felt it was worthwhile for the greater intellectual opportunities. “I was in my twenties, the stage in a scientist’s career when they have lots of ideas. I wanted the chance to explore those ideas, because at the time I felt that industrial research was a bit of a straitjacket.”

Higher up the ladder, where a pay cut is usually more significant, the demand for scientists with a wealth of experience in industry is forcing universities to make the transition to academia more attractive, according to Lee. Industry scientists tend to receive training that their academic counterparts do not, such as how to build a multidisciplinary team, manage budgets, negotiate contracts and file patent applications. Industry scientists are also well placed to bring something extra to the teaching side of an academic role that will help students get a job when they graduate, says Lee, perhaps experience in good manufacturing practice or product development. “Only a small number of undergraduates or even postdocs will continue in an academic career. So someone leaving university who already has the skills needed to work in an industrial lab has far more potential in the job market than someone who has spent all their time on a narrow research project.”

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For a good example of a senior scientist who made the move, you need look no further than Richard Clegg. He was picked as head of the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute because of his experience as director of energy company BNFL’s science wing, which he joined in 1985. The university provided Clegg with a salary to match the pay and other benefits he was getting in industry. “Universities do realise that if they want people who have held senior jobs in industry to take leadership roles in the university sector – and not just those people who are coasting towards retirement – then they have to pay them an equivalent salary package.”

It’s not all plain sailing. For anyone who has become used to the culture of a company, academic hierarchies can come as a surprise, says Clegg. “There is a belief in some university departments that you can’t lead a group of other scientists if you are not an eminent scientist yourself. But being a good scientist doesn’t mean that you will necessarily be a good manager.”

While universities may have realised that they need to match industry salaries, they could do more, says Grant. “If you are considering moving back to university you have probably already accepted that you will take a cut in salary, so it’s more about working conditions,” says Grant. “If universities are seeking to recruit someone, say in their mid-thirties, who has demonstrated potential in industry, then you have to give them equivalent facilities. You can’t just put them in a little room at the back of the department and tell them to get on with it.”

Even in a relatively well-funded university, a newly arrived industrial scientist can be in for shock when it comes to things such as access to equipment. Lee admits to missing the “structured resources” of a well-funded industrial lab. “A corporation will give you everything you need to accomplish the goals that have been set for you. That is not just money and equipment, but people with the other skills that you need,” she explains. She recalls that after giving up a job where she had responsibility for 100 people and a &dollar;20 million budget, among her first tasks at Cambridge were to buy a laboratory stool and to fix a broken venetian blind.

Establishing a viable research group is expensive, and finding the funds can be difficult, says Grant. This is starkly illustrated by how much it costs to employ a postdoc – around £70,000, which takes a chunk out of a typical £500,000 grant. “These sorts of sums aren’t exceptional in industry because managers are able to shift resources, but in an academic department you’ll have to raise the funds yourself.”

Lee says these negative aspects are more than compensated for by the other resource that academia has in abundance. “In an industrial lab, people are very focused on their own projects and they don’t have a lot of free time to discuss any [research] problems that you might have. In an academic setting there is a huge amount of knowledge and expertise that is freely available and makes your work much easier and more rewarding.”

Each of the scientists New Scientist spoke to has never looked back. “One of the attractions of academic science is that it is a creative process. Even now, when the hands-on benchwork is done by my postgraduate students, I still talk to them daily and have an input into formulating ideas and trying out new methods,” says Grant.

I am happier now than I have ever been in my 25-year working career

“I am happier now than I have ever been in my 25-year working career,” says Clegg. “What you do get in universities is a lot of intellectual free space and the scope for self-expression. A person will get on in an academic career through their personal achievements and the esteem of their colleagues. Universities give people the opportunity to carve that out for themselves.”